My daughter's melon has wilted

 

I bought my daughter (a serious melon-lover) a melon plant (Lady F1,  type
of Honeydew) which we planted at the weekend.  It's in a mixture of
multi-purpose and grow-bagcompost in a wooden crate, planted in a mound (as
per instructions), with black plastic sheeting aound the base of the plant
to keep the soil warm and the leaves off the soil.
Two days later it has developed a serious floppiness which doesn't appear as
though it may be simply fixed by watering.
Being new to melon-growing, have we done something seriously wrong?  Maybe
it's too cold for it outside at the moment, although the plant in on a
south-facing wall which currently is getting a small amount of sun.

 



"Jo"  wrote ...

Having just come from our allotment where we noticed other gardeners
Potatoes/Tomatoes/Runner Beans, which we consider were planted out much too
early, have been frosted I think it is much too early to plant out something
as tender as a Melon. I wouldn't consider planting one out until after
Chelsea.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK
 

 


But Chelsea won the premiership last week!  Or did you mean the FA cup?  ;-)

 


It's been close to frosty the last few nights, I think you've probably
caught it a bit of a chill.

I managed 6 melon plants from seed last year, with a total production of 2
melons.  I think I needed to hand pollinate them a bit more than I did.
That was my first year of melon growing.  But they lived permanently int he
greenhouse, I would never have considered growing them outside.